Notes and thoughts:
International tennis moves to the forefront four times each year with the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon in England, and the U.S. Open. They are fun times for tennis fans to see the world’s best players. Many good players never move to the top 20 in the rankings and earn a living on the margins and seek only an upset or two in the span of 20 years (roughly ages 15 to 35).
It is nearly the same in the golf world in the good weather periods through the Summer. In both tennis and golf many youngsters in high school play in those sports and seek the world of good competition.
•The Summer Olympic Games offer excellent competition and thanks to the medium of television those of us who do not have the capability of being in Paris this year to attend the Games we have front row seats. Many years ago those running the Olympic Games sought to stimulate competition without keeping score. It did not work. See the listing on page 8 of countries which achieved the best team scores back to the 1920 games. The USA has had the best team scores the last seven Games back to 1996.
•The Chicago Bears are the early birds for playing games in the National Football League (NFL). The Bears will play a preseason match in the Hall of Fame Game at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1 in Houston. They will begin the regular season at Tennessee, Sunday, Sept. 8. The Bears will play the first three regular-season games on the road, a reminder of more than 50 years ago when they played home games in Wrigley Field, home of the baseball Chicago Cubs, and annually played the first three regular-season games on the road. The question remains: Will the Bears qualify for the playoffs this year?